Group helping feed hungry children likely sets new world record for sandwich making

Donnie Fetter @DonnieFetter

Saturday

Jun 29, 2013 at 12:21 PM

Lay down a slice of bread. Add two slices of cheese. Top it off with another bread slice. Repeat 3,800 times.

That's what as many as 70 Athens area volunteers did Saturday on their way to likely setting a new Guinness World Record for most sandwiches made in an hour.

But breaking a record served as just a gimmick to spur interest in a much more important cause: feeding hundreds of hungry children in the Athens community.

Action Ministries intends to deliver the cheese sandwiches made Saturday outside the Sam's Club on Atlanta Highway to needy children that lack easy access to fixed-location feeding programs such as those at area schools or shelters.

Andrea Fowler, vice president of Action Ministries, said volunteers deliver about 300 meals each day to children at area apartment complexes and trailer parks as part of the Smart Lunch, Smart Kid program.

"It's meant to help kids in (school-based) free or reduced lunch (assistance), but we don't exactly ask for proof when we're delivering food," she said. "We're going into places where we know people are struggling, so we're going to help whoever is there that needs it."

Many of those helped are children of the working poor, Fowler said.

"These are people who just need a little help making ends meet," she said.

The sandwiches made Saturday will help bolster the available meals needed to feed so many hungry children, said Action Ministries Program Coordinator Molli Freeman-Lynde.

Currently, the program serves about 1,200 children, but Freeman-Lynde said that doesn't include those getting help at fixed-location food sites.

Across the state, Fowler said there are as many as 800,000 children going hungry. She said Action Ministries hopes to deliver 200,000 lunches this summer in Georgia to those in need.

Collectively, they made more than 18,500 sandwiches, which shatters the previous sandwich-making world record of 2,706. Athens alone topped that, said Fowler, though the results must still get verification from Guinness officials.

"We had enough supplies to make 3,000 sandwiches, but we went through that in 25 minutes" thanks to volunteers and donations from area churches and Sam's Club, Fowler said. "We had to go buy more (supplies) and then kept on making ... more."